James Gunn To Write & Direct ‘Guardians Of Galaxy 2,’ Also Wants To Do ‘Thunderbolts’

Until this point, all James Gunn would allow about his future with Marvel was that he was under contract for one more movie. But with strong early reviews for "Guardians Of The Galaxy" (here’s ours), and a box office opening already predicted to be around $60 million (with some projections putting the take even higher), it’s now just a formality of Marvel making it official that Gunn will be back to write and direct the sequel. Accordingly, the folks around Gunn are basically confirming he’s got the gig.

“Of course they would want to make a sequel as long as [‘Guardians’] does well and people are excited about it, they’ll wanna do a sequel. So it’s going to happen,” ‘Guardians’ co-writer Nicole Perlman told The Wrap, adding: “James will be directing ‘Guardians 2,’ so he would also be writing ‘Guardians 2.’”

So what would be the sequel’s story? Gunn is already planning it out. "I know a lot of where I want to go. I have a lot of ideas for stories and characters that are going to appear, and there are documents written up that some people have, about Peter Quill’s father and his relationship, a lot of stuff about Yondu and a lot of stuff about Drax that nobody knows," he told Film Divider. "There are a lot of things that are part of the overall schematic that already exist, not to mention a lot of stuff about all of the cultures. There’s a lot of stuff about Xandarian and Kree culture that I’ve written down or I have in my head, as well as Krylorians and Ravagers."

But ‘Guardians’ isn’t the only Marvel property Gunn has his eye on. "I will tell you, one time I was saying to Kevin [Feige], we were sitting on set together on one of the days he visited and I said, ‘You know, I really want to make Thunderbolts,’ and he said, ‘James, if Guardians does well you’ll be able to do whatever you want so we’ll see what happens," Gunn told ScreenRant. And if you don’t know the comics, they are basically another big superhero team.

"Guardians Of The Galaxy" opens on August 1st. Watch 12 minutes of b-roll from the movie below.